SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Imagination Technologies announced a new security architecture that will cover its MIPS, graphics and radio cores. OmniShield aims to enable multiple secure domains on any virtualized hardware block using open software interfaces.
The technology could help Imagination differentiate its cores in an industry increasingly dominated by ARM and the x86. It already has helped fuel participation in a working group in its prpl Foundation developing open APIs for OmniShield.
Imagination will release a reference platform by the end of the year that implements its approach which includes a hardware root of trust and secure boot capability. The APIs will take longer given they are being defined by an industry group that includes representatives of Broadcom, Qualcomm, Lantiq and others.
OmniShield will be able to create up to 255 separate secure domains. Existing PowerVR graphics and MIPS series 5 and 6 cores have the hardware virtualization support it requires. Future PowerVR video and vision and Enigma radio cores will be designed to support it, too.
Imagination is working with a partner to develop open source versions of a hypervisor and trusted operating system for OmniShield. It expects third parties will eventually create tools to configure and manage secure domains.
The use of multiple secure domains will be useful in many applications. For example car makers could use a common GPU for separately secured dashboard, infotainment and driver assistance jobs. Imagination foresees SoC and system makers using OmniShield even for designs that use a mix of PowerVR and ARM or x86 cores.
Imagination and partners will provide a range of virtualized root-of-trust blocks for OmniShield. They will include crypto, Public Key Accelerator, random number generator, secure I/O for external Trusted Platform Modules and secure ROM blocks.
In addition, Imagination is developing a suite of on-chip interconnects for both coherent and non-coherent links. They will be covered by the OmniShield technology and could roll out as soon as this year.
The security initiative comes at a time when Imagination has seen a slight year-over-year uptick in sales of its MIPS cores of about five percent in the last two quarters. “I’m not suggesting it’s a trend, but it’s a good sign,” said Imagination chief executive Hossein Yassaie, noting he has doubled the MIPS design team to 200 engineers.
The MIPS architecture is well established in network routers and set-top boxes. Imagination hopes to extend it into automotive, wearables, the Internet of Things and — over the next two years — smartphones and tablets. The company claims it has significant new design wins for MIPS cores in top tier companies it declined to name.
— Rick Merritt, Silicon Valley Bureau Chief, EE Times 
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